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HBO Max has a documentary about the Automat, which was once America's largest chain restaurant. You could put in coins and receive food from small automated doo

HBO Max has a documentary about the Automat, which was once America's largest chain restaurant. You could put in coins and receive food from small automated doors and spigots at the Automat. Its downfall came with expansion of the suburbs, as there were fewer people remaining in the city center after work. The present crisis of city centers seems similar. I'm not sure if the relevance of city centers has basically been downhill since the first half of the 20th century, or if this phenomenon is cyclical. Give it a watch.

cguess 4y ago
I'd argue they're becoming more relevant, just less business-centric. A lot of people still like living near other people with easy access to goods, services, entertainment, etc without needing the excess of a large lawn and the isolation that comes with it. (The crowd on HN may be skewed towards the latter, but it doesn't make it wrong) Being able to walk to pick your kids up from school, stop at a coffee shop on the way home, not have to worry about car seats, or waiting in an idling car for 30 minutes for your place in line, it can be a very nice life.
adolph 4y ago
The term automat refers to a model of food distribution. [0] The movie [1] is about a specific firm, Horn & Hardart [2]. I don't think I'd agree with a thesis that suburbs were the direct cause of H&H's automat chain's decline. Logistically, there is a balance of preparation, freshness and transaction latency. The automat inverted freshness and transaction to prep latency from trad restaurants. The arrival of "fast food" used standardization to decrease prep and transaction latency from trad restaurant levels while maintaining freshness levels. In terms of payment tech, I'm not able to find a reference but my recollection is that automated bill accepting technology not common until the 1980s. If automats were unable to accept bills then they would be unable to offer higher value meals without human intervention (and lose their transaction latency advantage). [3] The format was threatened by the arrival of fast food, served over the counter and with more payment flexibility than traditional automats. . . . Another contributing factor to their demise was the inflation of the 1970s, increasing food prices which made the use of coins increasingly inconvenient in a time before bill acceptors commonly appeared on vending equipment. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Automat 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_detector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_detector Edit: removed first sentence "It's like a failure of imagination is cyclical." which had to do with H&H and other's ability to pivot, which H&H did in spades.
- blockwriter 4y ago
  The documentary did mention the problem H&H faced when the price of coffee began to rise beyond a nickel a cup. It mentioned changes in the fast food industry, too, but I glommed onto the influence of the suburbs.

cguess 4y ago

I'd argue they're becoming more relevant, just less business-centric. A lot of people still like living near other people with easy access to goods, services, entertainment, etc without needing the excess of a large lawn and the isolation that comes with it. (The crowd on HN may be skewed towards the latter, but it doesn't make it wrong) Being able to walk to pick your kids up from school, stop at a coffee shop on the way home, not have to worry about car seats, or waiting in an idling car for 30 minutes for your place in line, it can be a very nice life.

adolph 4y ago

The term automat refers to a model of food distribution. [0] The movie [1] is about a specific firm, Horn & Hardart [2]. I don't think I'd agree with a thesis that suburbs were the direct cause of H&H's automat chain's decline. Logistically, there is a balance of preparation, freshness and transaction latency. The automat inverted freshness and transaction to prep latency from trad restaurants. The arrival of "fast food" used standardization to decrease prep and transaction latency from trad restaurant levels while maintaining freshness levels. In terms of payment tech, I'm not able to find a reference but my recollection is that automated bill accepting technology not common until the 1980s. If automats were unable to accept bills then they would be unable to offer higher value meals without human intervention (and lose their transaction latency advantage). [3] The format was threatened by the arrival of fast food, served over the counter and with more payment flexibility than traditional automats. . . . Another contributing factor to their demise was the inflation of the 1970s, increasing food prices which made the use of coins increasingly inconvenient in a time before bill acceptors commonly appeared on vending equipment. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Automat 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_detector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_detector Edit: removed first sentence "It's like a failure of imagination is cyclical." which had to do with H&H and other's ability to pivot, which H&H did in spades.

blockwriter 4y ago
The documentary did mention the problem H&H faced when the price of coffee began to rise beyond a nickel a cup. It mentioned changes in the fast food industry, too, but I glommed onto the influence of the suburbs.